HP Update #9 (conclusion)

Well, I didn't intend to finish the book so soon, but last night as I was waiting for midnight to go watch the Perseid meteor shower, I had nothing to do but read HP, so I got more done than I intended. Then today at work I started the climax, and then I just had to finish.

NOTE: THIS POST INCLUDES SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE BOOK

The ending of the book is very somber and sad. There is definatly a finality to it, there's closure no awful cliffhanger and yet the final strings are left untited, though you know what they are. I must say, Dumbledore is my favorite character, and to see him killed is very sad for me. In one sense I understand it and see how it was inevitable, and yet I still mourn the loss (not like I'm crying myself to sleep or anything, but I think you get what I mean). I'm sad not only because he was my favorite, but also for Harry. Everyone close to Harry in a parental way has been killed: his parents, Sirius, and now Dumbledore. It's odd, as infuriated and betrayed as I felt knowing that Snape killed Dumbledore (I too had believed Dumbledore to that point that Snape was good), by the end of the book, all that was left was the sadness of the loss of the headmaster and the knowledge of the hard, rough road that lays ahead. Once again, a testiment to JKR's amazing writing and storytelling ablility, to create in me the emotions felt by the main characters in the story.

Overall, I feel book 6 was different than the previous 5. Let me take a step back. I feel like the books can be broken into groups. The first group is Stone and Chamber. Both those books are mostly establishing books where we get to know the main players and get to know how things run at Hogwarts. The second group includeds Azkaban (still my personal favorite), Goblet, and Phoenix. These three carry the most action, the most development, the most questions, and the most driving interests, in my opinion. The most exciting and captivating events happen in these books. More questions are uncovered, even in the answers. The last group consists of Prince and book 7 (I'm assuming). This set ties the pieces together, fills in the gaps, and has a sense of finality to it.

Book six brought in much more background info that gave even more depth and understanding to the struggle between Harry and Voldemort. What was just a vague "good vs. evil" point in Stone is now a full understanding of self-fulfilling prophecy and complicated, calculated scheming on the part of Voldemort. While there were questions raisd in Prince, such as who the HBP is, those questions, plus many others from the previous books, were finally answered. Little pieces from earlier books that we didn't think needed more explaining, such as the curse on the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts and the Horcrux of Tom Riddle's diary, were revealed to be even more intertwined with the characters and overall struggle. Prince definatly had more of a feeling of completion than of continuted curiosity. There was a sense that answers were coming and indeed many did come.

Even the climax felt different as I read it. Yes I couldn't put the book down and had to keep reading, but not to discover new and exciting things or because the action was so intense, but because I was in shock and the information I was given was so surprising that it didn't register; I had to keep reading just to be able to process what I had already read. The climax itself seemed to be only a chapter or two, and everything else was interesting or shocking, but not driving as, for example, the climax of Azkaban with the question about Sirius' identity and allegance.

All in all I think I like the book, I enjoyed it, but it is not my favorite. I still maintain that Azkaban is my favorite. Though there is some good information in this book, like Goblet, the death at the end leaves a bittersweat taste in my mouth and prevents me from calling it a favorite, though it was very enjoyable, interesting, and fun to read.